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IX 



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UlBRARY OF CONGRESS.. 

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2 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ! 




ANNUAl. DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED BEFOUE THE 



HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

/ 



STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA, 



THE TWENTY -NINTH DAY OF NOVEMBER, 1832. 



^^ 



BY PETER M'CALL, ESQ. 



Z.^' 



E. LITTELL, CHESNUT ABOVE SEVENTH STREET. 

1833. 



At a meeting of " The Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania," held at Philadelphia, on the 29th 
day of November, 1832, it was 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society are 
due, and they are hereby presented to Peter 
M'Call, Esquire, for his interesting and beautiful 
oration this day delivered, and that he be desired 
to furnish a copy for publication. 
From the minutes, 

J. R. Tyson, Sec'ry. 



ANNUAL DISCOURSE, 



MR. PRESIDENT, 

AND GENTLEMEN OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

Your kindness in assigning to me the present duty is in- 
deed only equalled by my presumption in its acceptance. 
Had the salutary admonitions of prudence been duly listened 
to, the youngest of your associates would have shrunk from 
the honour which your flattering invitation conferred. 
He had however the consolation to reflect that next to the 
ability to perform an action has ever been deemed a well- 
meant endeavour in its behalf. Though he has no preten- 
sions to the former, he may at least support a claim to the 
latter : though he cannot merit your praise he may hope to 
secure your indulgence. 

The career which Pennsylvania has sustained during the 
period of a century and a half, a period of great events and 
extraordinary developements, has been recently depicted 
in an anniversary address to a sister institution.* There was 
much in that survey to gratify an honest pride, and excite 
a laudable ambition. It displayed in the gradual advance- 
ment of our state to her present prosperity and happi- 
ness, the majestic triumph of liberty and knowledge. The 
review of her early history presents results equally inte- 

* Mr. Duponceau's discourse before the Society for commeinorating the 
Landing of William Ponn; delivered Oct. 24, 1832. 



Q HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

resting, if not equally splendid, with those which have at- 
tended her separation from the mother country. It does 
not exhibit the slow and sickly growth which is too often 
the fate of colonial dependencies. Planted by good faith, 
and watered by unbroken peace, the scion struck far and 
deep into the soil ; and while yet in the period that usually 
defines the infancy of a nation, reared its lofty trunk and 
vigorous branches to the admiration of mankind. 

In reflecting on the causes of a prosperity so unexampled, 
I have been led to attribute a prominent influence to the 
peculiar character and principles of the men who founded 
and long governed Pennsylvania. 

I need hardly remind this audience that the little band of 
pioneers who surrounded William Penn, were principally 
followers of the religious standard which he then bore. For 
many years the population of the colony was chiefly composed 
of members of the same religious denomination. Philadelphia 
was emphatically a Quaker city — Pennsylvania a Quaker 
province : and when their numbers and their importance 
receded before the flood of immigration, the memory of 
their services, and the influence of their virtues, enabled 
them still to sway the councils of the growing nation. They 
gave a tone to our manners : they gave a temper to our 
laws. The leading actors on the arena of public life, the 
objects of popular applause and proprietary favour, the 
Logans and the Lloyds, the Shippens and the N orrises, were 
prominent members of that society. With one exception, 
that of Thomas Lloyd, deputed by Penn in 1691, whose 
ability and virtue are the theme of contemporary praise, 
the political representatives of the proprietary did not pro- 
fess the religious sentiments of the Friends: but their opin- 
ions were, in most cases by positive instructions, in all more 
or less by the high respectability and elevated character of 
its members, controlled by the provincial council, who. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 7 

together with the popular branch of the government, during 
the first seventy years of our colonial existence, were chiefly 
composed of professed Quakers. Let me then invite your 
indulgence while I attempt to sketch the progress of the 
Society of Friends in Pennsylvania, and their influence on 
our institutions, literary, benevolent, and political. Few 
subjects connected with our early history possess superior 
interest or more eminent importance. Our hands now reap 
the harvest of their toils. Let us not refuse to the fathers 
of our birth place, the homage dictated alike by gratitude 
and justice. I fear there may be something too old fashioned 
and repulsive in the severe simplicity of the patriarchs 
of our soil, for the genius of a refined and luxurious age ; 
that like the portraits of our ancestors, discarded as useless 
furniture, or at best sent to adorn a garret, or a lumber 
room — their images seldom dwell in our memory, or rest in 
our affections. Let it not be so. Let the pencil of truth 
be dipped in the glowing colours of filial affection, to reani- 
mate the canvass which time has dimmed. While in the 
exercise of those inherent rights of conscience which they 
valued beyond price, many of us may differ from them in 
our principles or our practice, we shall find in their exam- 
ple much to cherish, to admire, to emulate. 

It is worthy of remark that a society whose cardinal prin- 
ciple is peace, sprung into existence at a period of blood- 
shed and confusion. At that memorable period of English his- 
tory, when the foundations of the constitution were broken 
up, and an unfortunate monarch buried beneath its ruins, 
many sought a retreat from the horrors of civil tumult in 
the precepts of the enthusiastic founder of this sect. The 
peaceful doctrines and deportment of these " Children of 
the Light," as the Quakers were originally styled, could not, 
however, shield them from bitter and relentless persecution 
— the persecution of vindictive laws, and the yet severer 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 



persecution of thoughtless derision. The most opposite 
parties, and the most hostile interests : republic, protector, 
king, the merry monarch himself, who cared for the religion 
as little as for the liberty of his subjects, all united in the 
arbitrary oppression of the Quakers. The Founder himself 
afforded a striking illustration of Verulam's beautiful remark, 
that " virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they 
are incensed or crushed." Twice expelled his paternal roof, 
and twice confined in the tower of London for his inflexible 
adherence to a proscribed sect, he maintained, through 
every vicissitude of fortune, a spirit which no tyranny could 
daunt. His memorable trial at the Old Bailey in 1670, 
leaves us at a loss which most to wonder at, the shameful 
servility of the bench, the collected fortitude of the accused, 
or the intrepid firmness of the jury, who stood between 
oppression and the rights of a fellow citizen. As a chapter 
in the instructive volume of human experience, the suffer- 
ings of the Quakers cannot be read without interest : how 
greatly enhanced is that interest by the recollection that 
those sufferings formed the main inducement to the 
establishment of a new colony ! Our fathers were wan- 
derers for religion's sake. The ancients would have called 
this voluntary exile, a sight worthy of the gods. Their his- 
tory presents no such example. Actuated by no motives of 
commercial gain, the fathers of Pennsylvania, like those of 
Plymouth, abandoning the comforts of civilised society, the 
endearments of friends, and the associations of nativity, 
courted and obtained in an untrodden wilderness that free- 
dom of conscience which was denied them at home. 

In the spring of 1681 the work of colonisation was com- 
menced. Three vessels, whose names as well as the names 
and characters of some of these primitive settlers, have been 
recorded by the industry of that honest and painstaking 
chronicler, Robert Proud, bore the germ of a great and 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 9 

flourishing commonwealth. The shores of the majestic 
river which they entered were not entirely destitute of the 
labours of their brethren. A few members of the Society 
of Friends had established themselves under grants from 
Sir Edmund Andross, in the territories afterwards chartered 
to Penn. West New Jersey had been previously colonised 
by Quakers, and a settlement made on the right bank of the 
Delaware, in the vicinity of the Falls. Meetings for religious 
worship already existed at Chester, and at Shakamaxon, 
now the scite of our Kensington. The arrival of the pro- 
prietary himself in the following year, brought strength to 
their numbers, and confidence to their hopes. An assembly 
was soon convened, the great law enacted, and the machine 
of government set in motion. The high grounds of Coa- 
quannock were marked out for the future metropolis. In 
less than a year from its foundation, eighty dwellings and 
three hundred plantations in its vicinity, attested its rapid 
prosperity. Stimulated by the delightful climate, the exube- 
rant fertility, and above all, the free constitution and the 
equal laws of the new colony, immigration rapidly 
increased ; scattering into the bosom of a dreary wilderness 
the cheering rays of civilisation and Christianity. 

The township of Byberry, in the county of Philadelphia^ 
was settled by families of industrious Friends, shortly after 
the arrival of William Penn. The Knights and the Carvers, 
the Waltons and the Rushes,* transported their families to 
Byberry in the years 1683-4-5. 

The history of this little home of patriarchal simplicity 
has been, with laudable industry, collated by Mr. Isaac 
Comly. It presents the simple annals of a poor, yet labo- 
rious and thrifty community, who, ignorant of the refine- 
ments which gild the asperities of life, were equally ignorant 

* The last were tlic ancestors of that iUustrious ornament of his profes- 
sion and his country, tlie late Dr. Benjamin Rush. 



1 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

of the artificial necessities which those refinements create. 
The shock of the Keithian controversy was felt throughout 
these peaceful precincts : and in the political contests which 
agitated the province, the Friends of Byberry enlisted with 
ardour in the popular cause. 

The learned and venerable Pastorious, accompanied by a 
society of Friends from Cresheim in Germany, laid the 
foundation of the village of Germantown in 1682. 

The flourishing settlements at Haverford, Merion, and 
Radnor, established the same year, deduce their origin from 
the Quakers of Wales. Among them, Hugh Roberts, a native 
of Pennlyn in Wales, is deserving of particular notice. It 
is no trifling proof of merit that he enjoyed, in an eminent 
degree, the confidence of Penn himself, who consulted him 
in relation to the original settlement of the province. He 
was equally conspicuous for his civil and religious services. 
His abilities, which are described as of no ordinary character, 
rendered him an efficient member of the provincial council. 

The Welsh settlements were reinforced in 1697 by the 
arrival of William Jones and Thomas Evans, who obtained 
a grant of the township of Gwynedd, within the limits of 
the present county of Montgomery. Their followers, pro- 
fessors of the established faith of England, soon became 
converts to the predominant persuasion, and in 1700, 
erected an edifice for divine worship, on the scite at present 
occupied for that purpose. The spirit of improvement in a 
few years brought into existence the townships of Goshen, 
New Town, and Auchland. The names of Gwynedd, 
and North Wales, indicate the Celtic origin of their early 
inhabitants. 

The settlement at Abington claims the honour of great 
antiquity. A monthly meeting was there established as 
early as 1683; which was subsequently incorporated with 
those of Oxford and Poetquessing. 



HISTORICAT, DISCOURSr;. 



n 



The township of Plymouth was originally purchased and 
settled about the year 1685, by James Fox, Francis Rawle, 
and others, emigrants from Plymouth in England. 

Meetings for worship were established at Neshaminy 
1682 ; at Oxford and Cheltenham in the following year. 

Bucks County was settled at a very early period of our 
colonial history. Carrying their ploughs along the banks of 
the noble stream which afforded them the means of ready 
access to their friends of West Jersey, the first emigrants 
seated themselves on the Delaware. In 1683 we observe, 
among the inhabitants and extensive landholders in this 
county, a family that long illustrated the annals of Pennsyl- 
vania, the Growdens of Bensalem. The names of Thomas 
Janney, Phineas Pemberton, and Jeremiah Langhorne, have 
descended to posterity with honourable testimonials of their 
civil merits and religious services. The highest judicial 
honours of the province were sustained with reputation by 
the sons of Langhorne and Growden. 

Some years prior to the grant to Penn, a few individuals 
of the Society of Friends had found an asylum in that 
portion of his territory, afterwards designated as Chester 
County. Robert Wade, accompanied by some followers of 
the same sect, established himself at Upland in 1675. It is 
upon record that the first monthly meeting of Friends in 
Pennsylvania, was held at Wade's house in 1681. The 
meetings of Springfield, Providence, and Middletown, were 
erected in 1696. Chester County continued for many 
years to be chiefly inhabited by members of that Society, 
and it remains to this day strongly impressed with the cha- 
racter of its early population. 

The spirit of emigration, which was rapidly felling the 
gigantic forests of Pennsylvania, and urging their original 
occupants towards the declining sun, reached Conestogo, the 
scene of many a council talk, and long esteemed as the Thule 



12 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

of civilisation, in 1732. That year witnessed an establish- 
ment of Friends at Lancaster. 

It is difficult, if not impossible to approach precision in 
the attempt to estimate the relative strength of the Quaker 
population at different periods of our history. Our early 
statistics are much too barren and incomplete to atford as- 
sistance in the research. 

Oldmixon, in his " Account of Pennsylvania in 1708," 
says, in relation to this subject, "the opinion of the Quakers 
prevails so far that they are by much the majority, as the 
English are of all the other nations." The assembly, in 
their address to the governor in 1711, and again in 1724, 
speaks of the Friends as composing a majority of the mem- 
bers of the house, and of the inhabitants of the province. 
If any thing were required to show the strength of Quaker 
influence at this period, 1 might refer to the instructions of 
Hannah Penn, the relict of the founder, to Sir William 
Keith, in relation to the admission of members to the coun- 
cil board, in which there is this remarkable passage : " As 
that country was first principally settled by those of our 
profession called Quakers, it is expected that at least one 
half of the whole number shall be of that profession." 

Though still in the zenith of their political influence, the 
numbers of the Friends were fast yielding to the tide of 
immigration which was setting from Germany and other 
nations of Europe. Yet their moral ascendancy survived 
their numerical superiority. In an official document ad- 
dressed to the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Planta- 
tions in 1740, Governor Thomas computes them at one 
third of the population. " Yet," adds he, " from their union 
they have a much greater influence on all public affairs than 
the other societies." In the celebrated pamphlet entitled 
" A Brief State," published in 1755, the entire population of 
the province is estimated at two hundred and twenty thou- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 



13 



sand ; of whom the Germans composed nearly one half, the 
Quakers not quite two fifths of the residue. From this 
period may be dated the extinction of their active poHtical 
influence in Pennsylvania. The aspect of public affairs was 
now materially changed. The peaceful sky that had shel- 
tered and fostered their sect, was overcast with clouds, 
that threatened to burst in Indian vengeance and French 
hostility. The conflicts between religious principle and 
political expediency, to which the Quakers were inevitably 
exposed, led ultimately to their withdrawal from the halls of 
legislation. 

I regret that it is not in my power to present to you more 
complete historical information on the progress of the So- 
ciety of Friends in Pennsylvania. In the records of the 
various religious meetings lie buried the sources of a more 
detailed and authentic knowledge. To rescue them from 
undeserved obscurity would be an object worthy the lover 
of times gone by. They would, indeed, alTord little to 
captivate the imagination, or gratify a taste for high-wrought 
adventure. No dazzling exploits : no fascinating romance : 
simply a picture of the homely realities of a new settle- 
ment : the slow but well assured ascent to unrivalled pros- 
perity, of a highly moral, industrious, and free people. Yet 
there would be enough richly to repay the labours of the 
antiquarian. Unqualified praise is to be accorded to Mr. 
Comly, for the assiduity with which he has rescued from 
the grasp of oblivion, the annals of a small but flourishing 
section of our state. Let us indulge the hope that an exam- 
ple so praiseworthy may not be without its proper influence, 
and that the archives of your society may be enriched with 
other contributions of a similar character and of equal merit. 

The memory of not a few of our early fathers has 
been transmitted to us through the medium of a beautiful 
custom, peculiar, as far as I am aware, to the Society of 



14 niSTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

Friends : that of embalming the memory of the great and 
virtuous of their community in public testimonials: monu- 
ments round which the atFection of posterity may throw its 
chaplets. It is thus that the names of Taylor, Jenning, 
Wynne, Lloyd, Cooke, Roberts, Chalkley, Carpenter, Owen, 
Pusey, Evans, Pemberton, and others, have been carried 
down to us with consecrated fame. They were the great 
men of those primitive days ; whose path through life was 
adorned by their private virtues and their public services. 

Regarded without reference to the moral of the story, 
the mere physical progress, the rise or fall of nations, pre- 
sents but little interest to the philosophical observer. The 
intrigues of courts, the revolutions of states, the subjugation 
of empires, illuminate the pages of history. Were history 
confined to these, philosophy might well refuse its claim to 
kindred association. With far deeper pleasure and more 
permanent interest we survey the social relations of civilis- 
ed man, and draw from the manners and morals, the litera- 
ture and laws, the institutions, civil and political, of ages and 
nations that are past, the lessons of experience, and the 
torch to our footsteps, in the paths of honour and greatness. 
1 propose to cast a rapid glance at Pennsylvania from these 
several points of view, with particular reference to the in- 
fluence exerted on them by the Society of Friends. And first 
of our early literature. 

I. In this age of universal literary pretension, the charge 
of an illiberal proscription of humane letters, involves a 
grave and serious accusation. Yet, such a charge springing 
in part from the example of some of the early fathers of 
that sect, but principally from its well known tenet, which 
renders the functions of the ministry independent of the 
illuminations of human learning, has not unfrequently been 
preferred against the Society of Friends. I can attempt 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 15 

no more on the present occasion, than briefly to show that 
the charge referred to, equally unfounded in the principles 
or the history of that Society, cannot invoke the authority 
of the Quakers of Pennsylvania. 

It is undoubtedly true that the golden fruits of literature 
are the precious result of long and tender culture, and are 
brought to maturity only in the genial sunshine of prosper- 
ous leisure. To prepare the soil, to scatter the seed for 
the harvest of future labourers, is all that can be accom- 
plished by those whose great and absorbing study is, to live. 
We do not therefore see, nor expect to find, learning or its 
professors among the pioneers of a wilderness. But in gene- 
ral education, the comprehensive genius of our founder saw 
the massive arch of the political fabric, the only effectual 
means of permanent security and happiness. His first 
frame of government, the reflection of a clear, profound, and 
cultivated intellect, contains a memorable provision, " that 
the governor and provincial council shall erect and order all 
public schools, and encourage and reward the authors of 
useful sciences and laudable inventions." 

Point me to an instance in the charters or constitutional 
documents of our sister colonies, where the interests of 
science and learning are thus directly taken under the fos- 
tering wing of the government itself.* 

* Several instances are to be found on the records of provincial Penn- 
sylvania, of invention applying for the protection of the law — all in re- 
lation to a common article of domestic use — lamp-black. The first applica- 
tion contained in the votes of assembly, Vol. 2. p. 240, 1713, 3d mo. 31st., 
is as follows: " The petition of Andrew Bradford, setting forth that he 
has been at a considerable expense in finding out the right method of 
making lamp-black ; and having completed the same, desires leave to bring 
in a bill to prohibit all others from making lamp-black for twenty years, 
was read. Ordered that he attend the liousc at tiieir next sitting, and 
acquaint them at what rates he can afford to sell it." 

Bradford again invited the attention of tiio house to the matter, but I 
have not been able to find tliat they acted definitively upon it. 



15 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

Seven years had not elapsed from the landing of Penn, 
before an institution arose, within whose venerable walls 
some of the brightest ornaments of our country laid the 
foundations of their usefulness. The Friends' Public School 
of Philadelphia : a noble monument of the liberal and ex- 
panded views of our primitive Quakers. Their temporary 
dwellings are yet shaded by the native grandeur of the 
forest when there arises a temple to science open to all 
worshippers.* This was not a mere reading, writing, and 
ciphering school, like that established in 1683, by Enoch 
Flower, the primitive schoolmaster of Pennsylvania, who 
taught to " read, write, and cast accounts," at " eight shil- 
lings by the quarter." it was an institution of much loftier 
pretensions, where the pupil was conducted through the 
regions of the pure mathematics, and taught to venerate the 
spirits of antiquity in the language of Greece and Rome. 

" Romano et Graeco quae docet ore loqui," 

says Thomas Makin, the successor of the celebrated George 
Keith, in its magisterial duties, whose muse was prompted 
to describe in Latin numbers the physical and moral beau- 
ties of the infant province. 

Few, among the early Friends of Pennsylvania, attained 
a more distinguished and just celebrity than David Lloyd. 

* The following minute of council exhibits the solicitude of the early 
settlers of Pennsylvania on the subject of education. 

" At a council held at Philadelphia ye 17th of ye llth month, 1683, 
present, William Penn, Proprietary and Governor ; James Harrison, John 
Syncock, Christian Taylor, Lasse Cock, William Biles, William Clayton, 
Thomas Holmes. 

" A law proposed to encourage making of linen cloth. 

" A law proposed for making of several sorts of books, for the use of 
persons in this province." 

" Proposed, that care be taken about the learning and instructing of 
youth ; to wit, a school of arts and sciences." 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. J 7 

His claims to our notice as a scholar are equally interest- 
ing, if not as imposing, as those which exhibit him on the 
arena of public life, the master spirit of the assembly, and 
the soul of the popular cause. 

But the luminary that casts the broadest circle of light 
on our early literature, is the secretary Logan : a name full 
of reverend honour and exalted worth. The wreath that 
encircles his venerated brow yet blooms with unfadcd and 
unparticipated lustre. In him the profound and abstruse 
sciences were crowned with the accomplishments of elegant 
learning. He was familiar with the sublimest abstractions 
of the mathematics ; but he had also drunk deeply at the 
soul-inspiring streams of classical literature. Like the phi- 
losopher of Tusculum, whose beautiful reflections on old 
age were the subject of his version, the sage of Stenton 
found in the society of the muses a retreat from the anxie- 
ties of political distinction. The patron of Godfrey, the 
correspondent of the most eminent literati of the old world, 
his splendid collection of books attests his love for science 
and his munificent appropriation of it, his zeal for the pub- 
lic good. 

Nor ought we on the present occasion to omit a name 
highly distinguished abroad and at home in the departments 
of natural science — that of the Quaker John Bartram, whom 
Linnaeus dignified as the greatest natural botanist in the 
world. His amiable disposition threw a mild lustre over his 
great talents, and rendered him the object of universal love 
and esteem. 

The literary resources of a people, the dissemination of its 
press, and the extent of its libraries, afford no mean criterion 
of its intellectual wealth. Apply this remark to the 
" Quakers" of Pennsylvania, and if they are not found intel- 
lectually rich, they must at least be acknowledged to have 
3 



18 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 



laid the foundations of mental affluence. In which of the 
colonies, as in Pennsylvania, was a press established within 
four years from the first print of the emigrant's footstep ? 
Among the earliest contributors, the warmest promoters, and 
the most active managers of the public library which adorns 
our city, not a few were members of the Society of Friends. 
A bequest by Thomas Chalkley in 1748, of a small col- 
lection of books, formed the germ of the library belonging 
peculiarly to the Society. Enriched by the munificence of 
various donors, among whom John Pemberton and Anthony 
Benezet are the most conspicuous, this instititution has 
reached a highly respectable station, and embraces the gems 
of polite literature, as well as the standards of scientific 
knowledge. 

II. A prominent characteristic of the present age, distin- 
guishing it from the most polished periods of antiquity, is 
the spirit of active and enlightened philanthropy. No longer 
confined to the circle of individual effort, its sphere is now 
diversified and enlarged by associated and systematic exer- 
tion. To her Quaker inhabitants is justly due the credit of 
having steadily propelled the career of disinterested and 
practical benevolence that has been so honourably sustain- 
ed by Pennsylvania. Its fruits are beheld not in the splen- 
dour of eleemosynary erections, but in those solid founda- 
tions of unobtrusive usefulness which it is not vanity to 
boast of : in the reform of prisons, the relief of disease, and 
the general alleviation of human misery. If from the early 
annals of our commonwealth, we descend to the history of 
later times, and trace the origin and progress of those 
numerous institutions of benevolence which characterise 
our community, we shall not hesitate to attribute much of 
their efficiency and success to the powerful co-operation of 
the Society of Friends. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. ] 9 

A historical detail of these institutions, however gratify- 
ing in itself, and connected with the present subject, would 
transcend the limits to which I am confined. 1 cannot, 
however, forbear a reference to one, which, in the scope of 
its design and the excellence of its details, stands unrivalled 
in this country — the Pennsylvania Hospital. This noble 
monument to humanity had its origin in the philanthropic 
exertions of the Friends, received its largest contributions 
from that society, and has always been subject to their 
peculiar superintendence and control. In the earliest roll 
of its managers, we recognise some of the most prominent 
Quakers of the province;* and its calendar during the lapse 
of eighty years, exhibits the steady impress of their influence. 

III. It remains for me to direct your attention to other 
and more important points in our general outline. To trace 
the distinctive features moulded on our civil polity by a 
body of men who long held the plastic powers of legislation, 
involves not a little that is interesting and instructive. 
Time has thrown its shadows over many of their labours. 
Innovation, which experience shows not always to be im- 
provement, has forced new channels over many ruined 
structures of our forefathers. There yet remain imbedded 
in our constitution, principles coeval with its existence, and 
which, 1 trust, neither time nor innovation will be able to 
efface — and least of all, the principle of religious toleration. 

1. I do not claim for Penn or his associates any merit of 
originality in the conception of the principle. It is native to 
great minds of all ages and countries. Bacon advocated it 
at the elbow of a bigoted and despotic prince. To Milton 
and Locke it was a truth congenial and self-taught. Yet to 
make liberty of conscience an article of political faith — to 

* Joshua Crosby, Isaac Pcmberton, jr., Hugh Roberts, Joseph Morris, 
John Smitli, and Cliarles Norris. 



20 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

sever church from state, was long regarded as a dangerous 
heresy in the systems of the most enhghtened nations. The 
honour of having burst the fetters of ancient prejudice, and 
given to the world the first practical illustration of the com- 
patibility of religious liberty with civil security, has been 
the subject of competition, and may be considered as still 
"5m6 judice.'''' The name of Roger Williams has long been 
consecrated by its association with this illustrious merit. 
His claims have met with formidable opposition in 
those of Coddington, the leader of a community of Qua- 
kers, and the principal instrument in the settlement of 
Rhode Island. Of one fact there is perhaps no longer any 
doubt, that religious liberty was first engrafted on the civil 
constitution in the charter granted to Rhode Island, in 
1663, by the second Charles. If to a sister colony be due 
the honour of having first adopted the principle, let us not 
be insensible to the extraordinary merit of the founders of 
Pennsylvania, in establishing as a fundamental article of 
their system, what was certainly a novel theory in legisla- 
tion. It would be injustice to our ancestors to judge of 
their productions by the lights of our present experience. 
We believe with confidence, and we rejoice in the belief, 
that the sceptre of intolerance is for ever broken by the 
spirit of enlightened inquiry, before which the crown and 
the tiara have bowed with submissive deference. Intole- 
rance has certainly few avowed, perhaps few secret advo- 
cates. Religious freedom seems as essential to our exist- 
ence as the very atmosphere we breathe ; and, as with that 
atmosphere, in the general diffusion of the blessing, we lose 
our sense of its value and importance. Fairly to appreciate 
their merits, we must reflect on the great and wonderful ad- 
vance of Penn's institutions beyond the genius of his age. 
It must not be forgotten that from the days of Wickliffe till a 
very recent period, intolerance has with more or less seve- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 21 

rity reigned over the land of Newton and Locke. We 
must recollect, too, that even in America, not all our sister 
colonies can boast of having thrown wide their doors to the 
victims of oppression. In New England, founded by fugi- 
tives from oppression, the Quakers were proscribed with a 
severity almost incredible. What must have been the spi- 
rit which dictated the law of Massachusetts Bay, of the 20th 
October, 1658, condemning every person convicted of be- 
longing to the cursed sect of Quakers, to banishment on pain 
of death ! And how delirious the fanaticism which actually 
inflicted on four individuals the final penalty of this inhu- 
man law ! The cruelties exercised toward this sect in 
Massachusetts and other provinces endeavour to find an 
apology in the temper of the age ; as the biographers of Cal- 
vin have sought to justify his sanguinary persecution of Ser- 
vetus, by its being the habit of the time. If the records of 
Pennsylvania are stained by no similar excesses, the exemp- 
tion is in a great measure to be attributed to the liberal, 
comprehensive, and statesman-like policy of her Quaker 
founders. In Maryland, the Church of England was at an 
early period established by law ; and a poll-tax of forty 
pounds of tobacco levied for the support of the parochial 
minister. In South Carolina, a similar establishment was 
made a fundamental article of the constitution, in opposi- 
tion to the opinion and advice of its great author, Locke ; 
and a court of enquiry instituted, bearing the features of the 
celebrated High Commission. In Massachusetts, church 
membership was an indispensable qualification for the ad- 
ministration of the civil government, and even the exercise 
of the elective franchise. The elders or ministers, though 
not regarded as forming a separate estate, were consulted 
in matters of civil as well as religious nature ; and no affairs 
of moment were determined without a formal reference to 
their judgment. It would have been no difficult measure 



22 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

for the quakers to have erected for themselves an ecclesias- 
tical superiority in Peunsylvania, long regarded as the 
peculiar asylum of their sect. But such an establishment 
was equally hostile to their religious tenets and their politi- 
cal sentiments. Universal liberty of conscience and equali- 
ty of worship were made the corner-stone of their building, 
written in capitals on the final charter, and declared to be 
an indestructible element of the constitution of Pennsylvania. 

2. Nor is there a brighter page in the annals of our state, 
than that which records her signal efforts in the suppression 
of the African slave trade. Were every other monument of 
her wisdom blotted from existence, the friends of humanity 
would yield to this the homage of unceasing admiration. 

The merit of having given the impulse to public senti- 
ment in Pennsylvania on this interesting subject is due to 
the Society of Friends. The suppression of this odious 
traffic, which the common feelings of civilised mankind 
now join in viewing with abhorrence, has always been re- 
garded by that society as a duty peculiarly imperative. 
Among the earliest advocates of the oppressed African, 
were the founder of the society and his disciple Edmond- 
son. Their example has been pursued by their followers with 
a zeal which no obstacles could dishearten. A brief abstract 
of their labours in Pennsylvania is essential to our subject, 
and, I trust, will prove not entirely destitute of interest. 

The first public protest against the buying, selling, and 
holding of slaves, issued from an humble fraternity of Qua- 
kers at Germantown, in the year 1688. The great truths 
here proclaimed were soon echoed throughout the several 
religious meetings of the Province. 

The year 1711 is distinguished in our legislative annals 
by a law to prevent the importation of negroes and Indian 
slaves. But the spirit which dictated the " cursed assiento" 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 23 

guided the councils of the mother country, and rendered 
abortive the earhest colonial effort to check the growth of 
this hideous ofTspring of European avarice. 

In the following year, a duty of twenty pounds was im- 
posed on every negro imported into the province. 

The attempt to restrain, like that which sought the entire 
abolition of slavery, perished at its birth. 

Every legislative etfort to extirpate the moral disease 
which contaminated Pennsylvania, being thus defeated by the 
misguided policy of the English cabinet, no field remained 
but that of private individual exertion. On this the Society 
of Friends entered with a zealous integrity of purpose, 
which was the surest harbinger of their success. 

The importation and purchase of negroes were in the 
most absolute and unqualified manner prohibited by the 
yearly meetings in 1715, 16, and 19; and the quarterly 
meetings were directed, in 1737, to report the conduct of 
their members on this subject. 

A still more convincing testimonial of sincerity in the 
work in which they had so ardently engaged, is exhibited 
in the resolution of the Society, of 1755, disowning from 
their religious communion all who persisted in the infamous 
practice of holding slaves.* 

The consummation of the work yet remained. To strike 
off the chains which were already riveted, required a disin- 
terested sacrifice of personal interest, such as seldom adorns 
the records of human actions. In pursuance of a resolution 
of 1758, John Woolman, an enthusiastic labourer in the 
cause of emancipation, was deputed to visit the owners of 
slaves, with the \\ew of effecting, by argument and persua- 
sion, their manumission. Success is said to have attended 
his charitable efforts. But the decisive act which sealed 

* See Bottle's Notices of Negro Slavery. 



24 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

the testimony of the Friends, was the resolution of 177G, 
disowning from their society all who refused to manumit 
their slaves. 

Thus the year which saw proclaimed our political inde- 
pendence, witnessed a glorious illustration of the great truth 
which that independence consecrated — the equal rights of 
man. 

It is gratifying to reflect that the names of these early 
champions of justice have not perished in undistinguishing 
oblivion. Posterity will place Woolman and Sandiford and 
Lay in the first rank of modern philanthropists. Nor will 
Benezet be forgotten while injured humanity shall find an 
advocate.* No proud inscriptions record the services of 
these humble Friends ; but the prayers and the blessings of 
emancipated beings are a tribute to their memory, more 
illustrious than the sculptured marbles which emblazon the 
achievements of the hero and the conqueror. 

3. The policy pursued by our fathers towards the aborigi- 
nal possessors has attracted the applause and admiration of 
civilised mankind. We may indulge an honest pride in the 
reflection that the title to our inheritance is unstained with 
blood, that it was not wrested by the arm of superior power, 
nor stolen by artifice and fraud. The unsullied purity of 
faith, the sacred regard for justice, which presided over our 
Indian relations, merited the eulogies of Voltaire and the 
Abbe Raynal. 

If Pennsylvania did not bleed with savage cruelty — if her 
history records the exploits of no warrior Philip, desolating 
with ruthless barbarity her infant settlements, it is to the 
pacific policy of her Quaker rulers that she owes her exemp- 

* Vide Memoirs of these individuals, by Roberts Vaux. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 25 

tion from the unhappy fate of the other colonies.* Through 
every vicissitude of political mutation, from the conference 
under the Elm Tree, to the association of ''55, the children 
of Onas, as the Quakers were styled by the aborigines, 
were the advocates of peace, and the guardians of Indian 
rights. 

But I forbear pursuing a subject which has been treated 
at length in an address formerly delivered on a similar occa- 
sion.! 

4. In developing the influence exerted on our early insti- 
tutions by the Society of Friends, the criminal jurispru- 
dence of our state claims a share of our attention ; — 1 mean 
that ameliorated code which the Founder and his associates 
substituted for the barbarous penalties of the English law. 

Capital punishment, the lawfulness and expediency of 
which have of late been the theme of such frequent and 
animated discussion, while it did not militate with any posi- 
tive tenet of their religious faith, found no congeniality in 
the feelings or the judgments of the settlers of Penn- 
sylvania. To reform rather than to exterminate, was the 
dictate of reason as well as humanity ; and of this truth 
they never lost sight in their legislative labours. \n this, 
they have the extraordinary merit of anticipating the en- 
lightened spirit of the present age — of striking out a path in 
which they have been industriously followed by the Ilomil- 
lies, the Mackintoshes, and the Peels, of later times. 



* The growth of New Hampshire and MassachuseUs was materially 
impeded by their Indian wars. It is computed by Hutchinson, (p. 200,) 
tliat from the commencement of Philip's war in 1675, to the year 1713, five 
or six thousand of tJic youth of the country had perished by tlie enemy, or 
by distempers contracted in the service. 

t Discourse delivered by Roberts Vau.\, Esq. 
4 



26 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

By the royal charter, the laws relating to felonies were 
to be and continue the same as they were for the time 
being in England, till altered in the due course of provin- 
cial legislation. The sanguinary code of the mother coun- 
try, with its bloated catalogue of capital offences, was thus 
engrafted on our jurisprudence. To prune its monstrous 
excrescences, was one of the chief and earliest cares of our 
ancestors. Their sense of humanity revolted at its lavish 
expenditure of life ; their sense of justice was shocked at the 
undiscriminating severity of its sanctions. 

In the great law, published at Chester in 1682, our 
fathers erected an imperishable monument of their wisdom 
and philanthropy. It ought never to be forgotten by their 
sons that in this first act of legislation, without an example 
from the records of English or colonial jurisprudence, the 
last and most solemn sanction of the law was imposed on 
the single offence to which it is now restrained, — wilful and 
premeditated murder. Corporal punishment, imprison- 
ment, and pecuniary satisfaction, were substituted for an 
ignominious death. 

It is somewhat remarkable that crimes so malignant in 
their character, so deeply affecting the interests of society, 
as treason and robbery from the person, are entirely omit- 
ted in this extraordinary document. They were both felo- 
nies of death in England; they were therefore capital here. 
The former remained untouched by legislation.* It has 
been thought by some that our primitive legislators, unac- 
customed to the distinctions and boundaries which legal 
precision has marked out, intended to include robbery 



* As early as 1685, we find " a commission directed specially to William 
Clark and John Cann, for the enquiring, hearing, and determining, of an 
accusation of treasonable words uttered by John Curtis, of Kent county." 
The grand jury returned an ignoramus to the bill. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 



27 



under the provisions against theft. Certain it is, however, 
that not many years elapsed before robbery was distinctly 
noticed and made the subject of imprisonment and pecu- 
niary satisfaction.* 

The enhghtened humanity which dictated the great law, 
continued to shed its mild lustre over the pages of our sta- 
tute book, until the year 1717. During this period, our 
code stands in striking relief amidst the penal systems of 
colonial America.! The provisions of the great law were 
with various modifications substantially re-enacted on the 
accession of Fletcher in 17*93, and by Governor Evans in 
1705. it was deeply rooted in the affections and religious 
sentiments of the great body of the people. 

But the inveterate attachment of the mother country to 
the ancient system of capital punishment, demanded from 
Pennsylvania the abrogation of that mild and lenient policy 
which was her distinguishing ornament and pride. A new 
system arose during the administration of Keith in 1717, 
modelled on the rigours of the English law. Its stern be- 
hests met no response in the hearts of the Quaker popula- 
tion. Compelled to suffer what they wanted the power to 
resist, they looked back with veneration on the great law, 
whose mild and equable provisions were engraven on their 
affections.l 



* In the provincial law presented to Governor Fletcher in 1693, for his 
ratification, the 164th and 165th relate to robbery and stealing. 

t In Massachusetts Bay, no less than ten crimes were, by its early laws, 
punished with death. The penal system of that colony was formed on the 
Jewish mode ; cursing and smiting of parents, blasphemy, and idolatry, 
were punished capitally. 

t For further information on this interesting subject, reference may be 
usefully had to tlie notices of the original and successive efforts to reform 
the penal code of Pennsylvania, <fcc. by Roberts Vaux. 



28 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 



5. We have yet to notice a prominent feature of the 
pohcy of our state, whose origin is to be traced to the reh- 
gious sentiments of its early settlers ; — its pacific policy. 
The unlawfulness of war, it is well known, is a cardinal 
point of the Quaker faith. Regarding it as the grand 
source of human misery, the mildew of social happiness — at 
once the effect and the promoter of those blighting passions 
that have brought " death into the world and all our woe," 
the founders of this sect carried their denunciation of war- 
like measures to an extent hardly compatible with the 
actual constitution of society in an iron age. The hostile 
relations of the two great powers of Europe, from the year 
1693 to the latter half of the 18th century, were felt 
throughout the extremities of their respective dominions. 
The Canada frontier was for many years the theatre of a 
war aggravated by the cruelties of savage barbarity. New 
York was more immediately exposed to the enemy, but the 
peaceful province of Pennsylvania had a deep and kindred 
interest in her security, and our Quaker assemblies were 
frequently called on to sustain their share of the general 
burthen. No subject of colonial politics produced an agita- 
tion more deep-felt and extensive. On the one hand, the 
proprietary representatives, shackled by no religious scru- 
ples, and jealous for the honour of the crown, and the inte- 
rests of their employers, pressed with every art and all 
their influence, the establishment of a militia. Governor 
Evans played off his " alarm ;'' Governor Gookin menaced ; 
Governor Thomas expostulated ; but all in vain. Headed 
by that indefatigable champion of the people, that bold, elo- 
quent, and able advocate of their rights, David Lloyd, the 
assemblies of Pennsylvania, through good report and evil 
report, continued to resist every effort to draw them into 
military measures. Armed with the panoply of religious 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 29 

scruples, they maintained the inviolabihty of conscience 
against the artillery of squibs, pamphlets, newspaper essays, 
sermons, and even judicial charges directed by their adver- 
saries. From the pulpit, Gilbert Tennant preached the 
lawfulness of defensive war. From the bench, the learned 
chief justice of the lower counties, Mr. Chew, in an elabo- 
rate charge to the grand jury, derived its sanction from the 
law of nature, and the precepts of revelation. 



In the universal toleration of religious sentiment; the hu- 
mane regard for the rights of the Indian and the negro ; the 
amelioration of the penal system, and the general tendency 
to pacific measures, we have traced the most prominent 
features of our civil polity, as affected by the peculiar prin- 
ciples of the Society of Friends. To fill up the portraiture, 
it would be my pleasing duty to show you other lineaments, 
expressive of the same parentage — to exhibit Pennsylvania 
as she was during the influence of her Quaker administra- 
tion, her free constitution, and her wise laws. 

I would point to the existing systems of the mother coun- 
try, and show you the venerable errors and abuses which a 
great genius has attempted to reform, swept away with an 
unsparing hand during the first seventy years of our exist- 
ence. 

I would invite you to survey the legislation of our sister 
colonies during the same period, and with a modest pride 
would show you Pennsylvania standing on the vantage 
ground of social improvement. All this would be essential 
to the complete execution of the present duty. But I must 
abandon a field so attractive, yet so vast. Much of it has 
been already trodden by those after whose footsteps it 
would be vanity in me to hope to glean. 



30 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

A brief survey of the general character, political and 
moral, of Pennsylvania, during the period that the weight 
and influence of the province were embodied in the Society 
of Friends, will occupy what is left of your patience. The 
subject to which your attention is now directed, would 
occupy no inconsiderable figure in a tract of domestic lite- 
rature hitherto unattempted ; — a constitutional history of 
Pennsylvania. We have lately beheld a distinguished scho- 
lar exploring with industrious and impartial criticism, the 
venerable political structures of a country to which we are 
indebted for the most cheering examples. May we not 
hope that the time is near at hand when some gifted son 
will attempt for Pennsylvania, what Hallam has done for 
England ? Let us be assured that the result of such an en- 
quiry would not diminish that devoted attachment to 
our institutions, which, though jealousy or disaffection 
may stigmatise it as national vanity, is no inefficient 
safeguard of our country — is a main ingredient of patriotism 
itself. 

The early settlers of Pennsylvania were practical, rather 
than speculative men, with more of judgment than erudi- 
tion, acquainted with the evils of arbitrary power, from 
their own, rather than from the records of past experience. 

Contrast with the labours of these comparatively unlet- 
tered men, the offspring of one of the most god-like intel- 
lects with which the Deity has condescended to illuminate 
mankind — I mean John Locke. What might not have been 
anticipated from a mind so comprehensive, a genius so pro- 
found, a knowledge of history and of governments so exten- 
sive, as were possessed by this greatest of modern philoso- 
phers ! The constitution of South Carolina was his beau 
ideal of a state — the fruit of his reflection and experience. 
Yet the fabric was scarce erected, before its cumbrous 
piles were found to be totally unadapted to the circum- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 31 

stances and necessities of those for whom they were in- 
tended. 

What strikes us with admiration and astonishment in the 
institutions of Penn and his followers, is their extraordinary 
advancement in all those liberal principles which the revo- 
lutions of later times have developed and propagated. 

The great features of our constitution, as it now stands, 
are to be found in the rights guaranteed to Pennsylvania 
during the first twenty years of her colonial existence. 
Pennsylvania did not acquire her freedom when she secured 
her independence. Born a republic, and from the cradle 
cherished in republican principles, the government, though 
in form proprietary, was essentially the government of the 
people. Their approbation and assent were necessary to 
the formation of the laws, and, holding in their hands the 
keys of the public treasure, they had the power of seeing 
those laws executed. 

The constitution of Pennsylvania, in the space of twenty 
years, passed through three transitions from its primitive 
organisation in 1681, till its final development in the char- 
ter of 1701. 

Let us pursue it through its changes. In each we shall 
observe the popular principle acquiring increased volume 
and firmer consistency. 

The original frame of government of the 25th of April, 
1G82, is in all respects a very extraordinary production. 
Where will you find more profound speculation on the ori- 
gin and nature of the social compact — more comprehensive 
views of the science of government; and the great ends of 
legislation, enforced with greater cogency, and more lumi- 
nous conciseness? Throughout this noble offspring of the 
Founder's wisdom is breathed a spirit of exalted freedom, 
not that spirit which the Greeks worshipped under the 
name of liberty, whose rites were the delirium of wild ex- 



32 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 



cess, whose path was marked by Hcentious tumult ; but a 
liberty of law, chaste, sober, and regulated ; freedom accord- 
ing to his own unparalleled definition, — " that country is free, 
where the laws rule and the people are parties to those laws ; 
and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy, or confusion." 

By the first article of this frame, all the functions of go- 
vernment were vested in the governor and freemen, in the 
form of a provincial council and general assembly. 

The great principle of the republican creed, the agency 
of the people through the medium of representation, was 
established by the first charter on the broadest basis. The 
representation of the province was effected by two distinct 
bodies: the Provincial Council, consisting of seventy-two 
persons, " of most note for wisdom, virtue, and ability ;" 
and the General Assembly, composed of two hundred mem- 
bers annually elected, whose object is expressed in the 14th 
section to be " that all laws prepared by the governor and 
provincial council may yet have the more full concurrence 
of the freemen of the province." An annual rotation of 
one third of the provincial council secured a constant cir- 
culation of public sentiment in the deliberative body ; while 
a provision forbidding the re-election, during the space of 
one year, of every member thus annually leaving the main 
body, was calculated to diflfuse a general knowledge of the 
duties of legislation throughout the community. 

A similar division of the representative functions is not, 
as far as I am aware, to be found in the history of ancient 
or modern states. In Massachusetts, indeed, during the 
early period of the colony, when the necessities of the set- 
tlers did not admit their long absence from domestic 
concerns, the freemen of each plantation delegated two or 
three before every general court, to confer of and prepare 
for their subsequent deliberation, such matters as the intc- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 33 

rests of the state might require.* This, however, was an 
arrangement of convenience, not a provision of the law. 
In the provincial council^ in conjunction with the governor, 
were vested, by the frame of government, the responsible 
duties of digesting and preparing the necessary laws, the 
care of their execution, the general superintendence of the 
peace and safety of the province, the location of its cities, 
ports, and market towns, the inspection of its fiscal opera- 
tions, the erection of public schools, and the encouragement 
and patronage of useful talent. A standing committee, 
subdivided into committees of plantation, of justice and 
safety, of trade and treasury, of manners, education, and 
arts, possessed all the powers of the provincial council, sub- 
ject to their supervision and control. 

The general assembly had no participation in these im- 
portant duties. A simple affirmative or negative to the laws 
proposed by the governor and council, with the privilege of 
suggesting alterations and amendments, summed the extent 
of their legislative functions. 

Possessing neither the right to originate laws, nor to dis- 
cuss those submitted to their sanction, without the privilege 
of sitting on their own adjournments, or the power of resist- 
ing dissolution by the governor and council,t they were but 
a subordinate member of the political machine ; the sha- 
dow of a representative assembly. 

How faint a resemblance do wc here trace to the assem- 
bly of after times — to that body of enlightened statesmen, 
who, animated by a pure and lofty patriotism, erected the 
standard of political independence. 

The experience of our own, and the history of other coun- 



* Hutchinson, p. 35. 

t In Massachusetts, the governor convened the general court, but had no 
power to adjourn or dissolve it. 
5 



34 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

tries, have demonstrated the salutary effect of an interme- 
diate check between the executive and the immediate 
representatives of the people. Such a check seems to have 
been proposed in the provincial council. But the accurate 
adjustment of the balance, (the most difficult problem in the 
science of government,) was ill secured in the original frame 
of our constitution. Too much weight was thrown into the 
scale of the provincial council. The assembly was a weak 
and helpless infant, destitute of the power of self-motion, 
and dependent for its vitality of action on the impulses of 
the council. 

A scheme so unequally poised could not be of long dura- 
tion. The people must and will speak their own wants 
through the channel of their immediate representatives. 
How diminished the usefulness as well as glory of the com- 
mons of England or the congress of the United States, were 
their halls closed in silence to those animated discussions 
which light up truth in the irradiations of eloquence, and 
elicit from the conflict of sentiment the true interests of the 
country ! 

In the charter of 1682, three privileges were wanting, 
essential to the existence of a dignified, efficient and inde- 
pendent representation : — the power of originating bills, of 
free discussion, and of self-adjournment. 

The first two powers were soon obtained. At the first 
provincial assembly held in 1682, it was proposed and 
voted in the affirmative, that any member might offer any 
bill, public or private, tending to the public good, except in 
case of levying taxes. 

Freedom of debate was anxiously provided for by our 
primitive legislators. At the first session of the assembly, a 
code of parliamentary rules was established, in which, 
among other wholesome regulations, is to be found one not 
unworthy the attention of their successors. " None to fall 



FIISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 35 

from the matter to the person ; and superfluous and tedious 
speeches may be stopt by the speaker." 

The practical operation of a year developed inconve- 
niences in the original frame, which was remodelled in 
1683. 

The unwieldy size of the legislative body was one of the 
most pressing inconveniences of the existing constitution. 
The provincial council was now reduced to thirty-six, the 
assembly to seventy-two members. But the most striking 
alteration was a restraint imposed on the executive power, 
which strongly denotes the current of public sentiment. 
The charter of 1682 armed the governor with a treble vote 
in the provincial council. That of 1683 took from his 
hands this solitary weapon, and directed that he should 
perform no act relating to the justice, trade, treasury, or 
safety of the province, without the advice and consent of 
the provincial council. 

Strengthening with the strength, and expanding with the 
increase of the colony, the popular influence demanded 
from Governor Markham, in 1696, a guarantee of existing 
rights, and a concession of new privileges. The necessity 
of an immediate supply drew from Markham the third 
frame of government, in which the right of the assembly to 
prepare and propose laws, and to sit upon their own 
adjournments, is distinctly recognised. 

The charter of 1696, though never formally sanctioned 
by the proprietary, continued to form the basis of govern- 
ment, until supplied by the charter of 1701, emphatically 
styled the charter of privileges. 

The charter of 1683 being found, to use the language of 
Penn, " not so suitable to the present circumstances of the 
inhabitants," was surrendered by the people in May, 1700, 
on the pledge of a new constitution, or an amended restora- 
tion of the old one. This pledge was redeemed by the 



36 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 



Founder on the eve of his final departure for the mother 
country, where his presence was required to counteract a 
growing influence malignant to the interests of the infant 
colony. It is painful to reflect that disappointment and 
misfortune obscured the evening of this great and good 
man's days. 

The charter of privileges is a noble monument of his 
parental tenderness and wisdom. 

Liberty of conscience, as the first and greatest of blessings, 
was for ever guarantied as an unalterable principle of our 
civil polity ; " Almighty God," in the solemn and impres- 
sive language of the first article, " being the only Lord of 
conscience. Father of lights and spirits, the author and ob- 
ject of all divine knowledge." 

The entire change effected by this charter in the ma- 
chinery of the government, merits our attention. 

The provincial council as a legislative body was struck 
from the system. 

All the legislative functions of the state were vested in 
the governor and assembly, who now sat upon their own 
adjournments, prepared bills, impeached criminals, redress- 
ed grievances, and were clothed with all other powers and 
privileges of a legislative assembly, according to the rights 
of the free-born subjects of England, and as were usual in 
any of the king's dominions in America. 

The charter of 1701 marks an era in the constitutional 
history of Pennsylvania — the ascendancy of the popular 
branch of the government. 

We have witnessed the general assembly, from small and 
crude beginnings, advancing gradually into notice and 
power, expanding its rights, enlarging its privileges, till at 
length the light of the provincial council was absorbed in 
its more powerful splendour. The assembly, as they held 
in their disposal the treasures of the province, were vir- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 37 

tually the masters of the state. The inferior condition of 
the proprietary representative, dependent on their bounty 
for his support, is feehngly portrayed by Governor Tho- 
mas.* "* Starve him into compHance or into silence,' " 
says the irritated governor, " is the common language, both 
of the assembly and people here, when a governor refuses 
his assent to a bill, or proposes what they dislike." 

We have reason to believe that a more faithful adherence 
to the blended forms of the British constitution, than is con- 
tained in the charter of 1701, would have been con- 
genial to the political views of the Founder, In a curious 
charge delivered in 1723 to a grand jury of this county! by 
the participant of his counsels, James Logan, is a passage 
which, from the high authority of its author, 1 shall take the 
liberty of quoting. " The same method of government," 
speaking of the union of monarchy, aristocracy, and demo- 
cracy, " also obtains not only in Britain, but in all its do- 
minions abroad, where regular governments are established : 
this one colony of Pennsylvania and the adjacent counties 
excepted. And this only through the perversity of some 
few persons on a certain occasion, much contrary to the 
intentions or inclinations of the wiser Founder ; which 1 
here mention on my own knowledge, lest this defect which 
is to be found amongst us only, and is a kind of blemish and 
exception to the uniformity of the British government 
throughout its dominions, should be charged to the memory 
of that great man whose judgment absolutely condemned it." 

It is not to be supposed that by the mixture of aristocracy 
here referred to as entering into the original plan of Penn, was 
intended any distinct class or privileged order similar to the 
British peerage, as a constituent member of the government. 

* Letter to lords commissioners, before referred to. 

t Printed by Andrew Bradford, at the sign of the Bible, in 1723. 



38 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 



No people could be more averse than the early settlers of 
Pennsylvania, to the pomp and splendour essential to the 
dignified support of such a body.* It militated further with 

* More regard seems to have been paid to distinctions of rank in Massa- 
chusetts and South Carolina than in the other colonies. In the former an 
endeavour was made from the earliest period to preserve two distinct ranks 
or orders ; the gentry and commonalty. There was a general disposition 
to elect the governor and principal officers from the former rank — the minis- 
ters preached it as a Christian and moral duty. A curious paper has been 
preserved by Hutchinson, to whom I am indebted for the foregoing state- 
ment. It is an answer to Lords Say, Brooke, and other gentlemen of dis- 
tinction, who had conceived the plan of establishing themselves in New 
England. Their proposals required that the commonwealth should consist 
of two distinct ranks, hereditary gentlemen and freeholders : the first rank 
to enjoy hereditary seats in the parliaments or pubhc assemblies, and to 
give their votes in person : the consent of both ranks being essential to the 
making and repealing of all laws. Their proposals met a favourable recep- 
tion ; the answer to the first proposal is expressed in these words : " Two 
distinct ranks we acknowledge from the light of nature and Scripture, the 
one called princes, or nobles, or elders, (among whom gentlemen have their 
places,) the other the people. Hereditary dignity or honour we willingly 
allow to the former, unless by the scandalous and base conversation of any 
of them they become degenerate." 

The constitution of South Carolina was modelled by Locke on feudal prin- 
ciples. The eldest of the lords proprietary was Palatine. The province was 
divided into counties, each county consisting of eight signiories, eight baro- 
nies, and four precincts. There were as many landgraves, and twice as 
many cassiques as counties. These formed the hereditary nobility of the 
province, and were by right of their dignity members of the parliament. 
Each landgrave had four baronies, and each cassique two baronies, hereditary 
and unalterably annexed to his dignity. In every signiory, barony, and 
manor, the respective lord had power in his own name to hold court-leet, for 
the trial of causes civil and criminal. The restraints upon alienation were 
strict and unwise. 

Georgia was likewise established by its trustees on a feudal basis. Each 
tract of land was considered as a military fief, for wliich tlie tenant was to 
appear in arms and take the field, when called on in the public defence. 

Lands were granted in tail male only and on failure of issue reverted to 
the crown. The plan was not crowned with success. The trustees in 1752 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 39 

the well known republican sentinments of Penn; and the me- 
morable failure of Locke's constitution of South Carolina, 
with its various orders of nobility, its palatines, landgraves, 
and cassiques, was a fresh example of the inaptitude of such 
a scheme, to the circumstances of a newly settled country. 
It is probable that the wisdom of the Founder contemplated 
nothing more than a separate deliberative body, as a mem- 
ber of his political system, more limited in its numbers 
and permanent in its duration than the assembly, to serve as 
an anchor against the shifting tides of popular caprice. 

It is apparent from this imperfect sketch of the early con^ 
stitutional history of our state, that our forefathers, averse as 
they were to military measures, were nevertheless fearless 
champions of their political rights. 

The records of the assembly are replete with examples of 
their hawk-eyed jealousy in relation to their political immu- 
nities and privileges. Strongly as that harmonious union 
which was the practical result of their religious doctrines 
illuminated their private associations, their public career 
does not furnish an exception to the observation which has 
passed into a trite aphorism that party spirit is allied to a 
republic. Pennsylvania, in common with the other colonies, 
had her proprietary party, and her popular party — her 
court, and her country party. But it may be said of her 
early political conflicts, what cannot perhaps be affirmed of 
them at all subsequent periods, that they were contests rather 
of principles than of persons. 

Similar divisions founded in the jealousy of royal or pro- 
prietary encroachment existed in most of the colonies. It 
was during the administration of that imbecile representative 



surrendered their charter to the king, who established a legislature similar 
to the otlier royal governments in America. 



40 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

of the proprietary, Governor Evans, that the hnes of these 
divisions became distinctly visible in Pennsylvania. 

They were headed by no ordinary leaders. With an 
ardour that brightened under defeat, the popular cause was 
espoused by David Lloyd. An accomplished lawyer, his 
forensic habits gave him an advantage in the field of contro- 
versial dispute over his more profound and liberal adversary 
Logan, in whom the proprietary interests found an unwaver- 
ing advocate. 

The arms which old age compelled Lloyd to relinquish 
were afterwards wielded by the giant powers of Franklin. 
The profound and elegant author of the Farmer's Letters 
lent his eloquence and his abilities to prop the tottering 
fortunes of the house of Penn. 

The Quakers as a body enlisted under the banners of the 
popular or peace party. 

Some notice of their merits as a political association is 
essential to the subject before us. 

The task is one of no small difficulty. In vain do we 
look for an impartial sentence from the excitement of con- 
temporary partisans. It is the office of posterity to pro- 
nounce a decree which justice shall sanction. And even 
when time has thrown his shadows over the events and the 
actors of the great drama, the force of prejudice perpetuates 
the errors which the fever of the moment gave birth to. 
Who can have studied the elaborate monuments of genius 
which the historians of the two great parties of England 
have erected, without feeling that the severe impartiality of 
the judge is too often lost in the ingenuity of the advocate ? 
In our own annals we can never cease to regret that the 
effiilgence of Franklin's intellect was clouded by the rancour 
of party. The fame of the philosopher and the man of 
genius derives no brilliancy from the labours of the histori- 
cal partisan. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 41 

The proprietary instructions long continued to be the 
source of misunderstanding and contention. The right 
claimed by the proprietary family of fettering the official 
conduct of their deputies by private instructions, was 
resisted by the assembly as a claim unauthorised by the 
constitution, unknown to the laws, and an obvious resump- 
tion of powers granted by the charter to the executive branch 
of the government. The proprietary representatives were 
bound in heavy penalties to the scrupulous observance of 
their instructions. A chain was thrown round the free exer- 
cise of their official duty ; the more oppressive because im- 
posed by foreign residents, without reference to the imme- 
diate exigencies of the state. It is not to be wondered at 
that such unyielding restrictions which interfered with the 
enactment of salutary statutes, were regarded by the people 
as an incubus on their growing prosperity. The pretensions 
maintained at times by the council to a co-ordinate legisla- 
tive rank with the assembly were likewise the fruitful source 
of bitterness and dissension. It was contended with much 
weight of reason, that the frame of Markham and the char- 
ter of 1701 had entirely abrogated the legislative functions 
of the council, who could no longer be regarded in any other 
light than as the mere private advisers of the governor. 
There can be little doubt than on both these important 
points of difference, the sounder argument rested with the 
popular party. Allusion has been already made to the dis- 
sensions excited in the province by the attempts to organise 
a military force. 

Minor causes of irritation existed : these, however, were 
the chief grounds of the long and animated controversy be- 
tween the popular and proprietary parties. Like all simi- 
lar associations, in the ardour of conflict, both occasionally 
lost sight of reason and moderation. The former have been 
charged with ingratitude to the proprietary family. In pass- 
6 



42 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

ing our sentence on their conduct, we must not forget that 
as jealousy is the companion of love, so a noble ardour for 
liberty is for the most part attended by an overvigilant fear 
of encroachment. 



Such Mr. President is a rapid and imperfect sketch of the 
civil polity established by the followers of Penn. To dis- 
cuss its merits, to test its relative advantages by comparison 
with the political systems of other ages and nations, would 
carry me beyond the limits of the present undertaking. Its 
prominent and most beautiful features have been preserved 
and I trust will ever be perpetuated in our present excellent 
constitution. 

If, as we have seen, the founders of Pennsylvania guard- 
ed their political rights by the solemn assurances of char- 
ters, and fenced them round with legislative enactments, it 
cannot be denied that they possessed a muniment of their 
freedom far better than any written sanctions. I allude to 
their virtue — the simplicity of their manners — the purity of 
their morals — the industrious economy of their lives. They 
were indeed good men : and " good men," as Penn admi- 
rably observes in the preface to his Frame of Government, 
" are better than good laws : for good laws may want good 
men, and be abolished or evaded by ill men : but good men 
will never want good laws, nor suffer ill ones." The law 
is in theory supreme : but public opinion is the sovereign of 
the law, because its aid is essential to the effectual execu- 
tion of the law. It is only when they move together in the 
same sphere of justice that the public happiness attests 
their harmonious co-operation. 

The influence which the principles and the discipline of 
the Society of Friends exerted on the moral health and 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. * 43 

consequently on the political soundness of our community 
is a point to which your attention may well be directed, as 
it is essentially interwoven with the causes of our early 
prosperity. That influence has not ceased to operate, but 
it operates with a force diminished by the greater extent of 
the surface over which it is diffused. 

The lover of ancient reminescence will perhaps discover, 
in the wonders of modern improvement, a sad departure 
from the pristine character of our community. Lingering 
with delight on those patriarchal days, when the represen- 
tatives of provincial Pennsylvania, the assembled majesty of 
the people, scrupled not to take refuge from the rigours of 
their own simple apartment* in the comfortable mansion of 
Isaac Norris ; when a dinner to the newly installed mayor 
was an event of no inconsiderable magnitude, the admirer 
of time and things gone by, may be tempted to exclaim 
with the Roman, " O morem praeclarum, disciplinamque 
quam a majoribus accepimus, si quidem teneremus : sed 
nescio quo pacto jam de manibus elabitur." 

It is true that the prints of our father's footsteps are fast 
buried in the sweeping tides of luxury and wealth. The 
virgin settlement! of Penn, now grown into the matron mo- 
ther of science, commerce, and the arts, vies in proud em- 
bellishment with European elegance and splendour. Yet 
are we still surrounded with vestiges of the olden time. In 
our streets, in our dwellings, in our institutions, around and 

* In the votes of assembly 1699, 12th mo. 7th, it is recorded that the as- 
sembly " adjourned to Isaac Norris's house, (by reason of the extreme cold) 
for an hour — at which time and place the house met, &c." 

t Penn, in his valedictory address to his friends in 1684, uses this lan- 
guage, " And thou, Pliiiadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province, 
named before thou wert born, wiiat love, what care, what service, and what 
travail has there been to bring thee forth, and preserve thee from such as 
would abuse and defile thee." 



44 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

on every side, exist monuments of an influence that has 
not passed away. In the steadiness of movement, the 
peaceful regularity, the chastened repose, the unambitious 
solidity of comfort, the aversion to unsubstantial glitter, to 
sudden changes of sentiment and action, and to all the high 
flights of folly and fashion which have stamped a distinctive 
character on Philadelphia, we cannot fail to recognise the 
silent, but wide spread and durable influence of the Society 
of Friends. 

Few speculations within the range of the philosopher 
possess more curious interest than the analysis of national 
character. To trace manners to their origin, often deep- 
seated in antiquity, and by reference to climate and local 
circumstances to exhibit the connection between the moral 
and physical constitution of man, is one of the most agreea- 
ble and useful exercises of philosophical enquiry. But of 
far deeper interest, because of far greater importance, is the 
relation which exists between the condition of society, the 
morals and the manners of a people, and its political desti- 
nies. It is therefore the duty of history faithfully to por- 
tray the manners while it records the actions of a people. 
It is thus, and thus only, that it claims its highest merit — 
that of teaching by examples. 

Poets of all countries, in embodying their thoughts of man 
as he ought to be, not as he is, have described a period of 
the world, an age of purity, happiness, and peace, which 
never had existence but in the rainbow colours of their 
own beautiful fancy. The picture of the primitive society 
of Pennsylvania needs but the touch of this enchanting pen- 
cil to elevate it to a golden age. The belief in mysterious 
and supernatural agency, and the discussion of subtile points 
of theology, literally rent New England in pieces. A single 
trial for witchcraft, which ended, however, in an acquittal, 



^M'l 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 45 

stands upon the records of Pennsylvania, as the Keithian 
controversy was the only one that disturbed the harmony 
of the Society of Friends. Indeed it is a striking feature of 
that society, that will doubtless recommend it to the good 
opinion of not a few, rather studiously to avoid than to 
invite or willingly engage in polemical discussion. 

Eminently calculated to diffuse a spirit of harmony and 
order, to systematise society, and to promote that tran- 
quillity which is the great motive of its institution, the end 
and object of its laws, the principles of the Friends incul- 
cated a deep and solemn veneration for the constituted 
authorities of government. " Government," says Penn,* 
" seems to me a part of religion itself, a thing sacred in its 
institution and end." Thus regarded as an emanation of 
divine power, and invested with a religious reverence, the 
moral guilt of arresting or disturbing its functions enhanced 
the civil crime. 

The spirit of private litigation is perhaps more fatal to 
the peace of society, than the daring outrage which openly 
insults the majesty of the law. It unseals the bitter foun- 
tain of evil passion ; it saps the morals, it weakens the ener- 
gies of a community. The early inhabitants of Pennsylva- 
nia endeavoured to set bounds to an evil that militated 
with their pacific principles, and made frequent legislative 
efforts to check and control what they could not wholly 
exterminate. In illustration of their peaceful character, it 
is related that the adversary of the venerable Pastorius, a 
name honourably distinguished in our annals, to deprive 
him of all professional assistance, retained the entire bar of 
the province. Happy age ! when such a stratagem could be 
effected ; when Pennsylvania required the services of but 
three lawyers. 

* Preface to his Frame of Government. 



46 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 



An honest and straightgoing simplicity, a simplicity truly 
republican, adorned the path of our fathers. In dress, 
habits, manners, accomplishments, learning, legislation, in 
every sphere and department of life, in public and in pri- 
vate, this is the pervading beautiful characteristic. 

In the statute book, it is seen to reject with an unsparing 
hand, the cumbrous forms and artificial processes which 
time, not reason, had consecrated in the mother country. 
While it never flattered vanity at the expense of truth, nor 
sacrificed utility to senseless show, the simplicity of our 
ancestors was entirely aloof from the ascetic severity of 
gloomy fanaticism ; it claimed no kindred with the sangui- 
nary spirit which dictated the blue laws of a sister province. 
Springing, not from the physical necessities of a new settle- 
ment, but from the purer source of religious principle, it 
continued to adorn their conduct, when wealth unlocked 
her stores, and invited them to banquet. 

It requires no depth of penetration to discover, that the 
simplicity and pacific disposition enjoined by the testimo- 
nies of the Friends, must have powerfully contributed to 
the preservation of social order. Could principles like 
these, — principles which, by chaining the passions, restrain 
the chief agents of human misery, be brought into general 
and effectual operation, our jails would be empty, our cri- 
minal tribunals deserted, and prison discipline matter of 
curious speculation, rather than as now a subject of 
immense practical importance. 

What, indeed, on the score of morals and social improve- 
ment, might not be hoped for from a system which sought 
to destroy the current, by stopping up the source of vice? 
How profound and practical is the wisdom of that memora- 
ble provision of the first laws, which dictated that all chil- 
dren of the age of twelve years " be taught some useful 
trade or skill, to the end that none may be idle, but the 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 47 

poor may work to live, and the rich, if they become poor, 
may not want !" A specific is here furnished for the mala- 
dies which the political physician is required to treat, more 
sovereign and effectual than sanguinary edicts, or the rigid 
sanctions of penal enactments. 

It may, perhaps, be thought that a state of society so 
pure, so simple, so regular, is congenial only to the limited 
scale of a narrow and unambitious community. It is true, 
indeed, that the theories of political experimentalists have 
seldom been fairly tested on an extensive scale. In not a 
few of its features, the system established by the Friends of 
Pennsylvania resembles the beautiful model attributed to 
the genius of the humane and enlightened Berkeley.* If it 
did not exhibit the rich colourings, the high-wrought 
mouldings, the splendid ornaments of some other systems, 
its arrangements were more convenient, its foundations 
were deeper, its materials more solid ; it was better calcu- 
lated to resist the shocks of faction, and the waves of time. 

It is but a just tribute to her Quaker rulers to say, that 
under their mild and equable administration, Pennsylvania, 
the youngest of the colonial sisters, advanced with unparal- 
lelled rapidity in her career of prosperous improvement. 
Commerce poured her treasures into the lap of peace.t 
The canvass of her merchants whitened the most distant 
waters. Long before the Parrys and the Franklins of our 
day had achieved immortality by their heroic enterprise, 



* Contained in the political romance of " Gaudentio di Lucca." 
t Philadelphia began at an early period to acquire the reputation for 
ship building which she has ever since maintained. In 1724, nineteen 
vessels, tonnage 959, were built. In the year commencing March 25th, 
1735, and ending March 25th, 1736, 197 vessels were entered and cleared 
at the port of Philadelphia, of which 57 were ships, and 44 brigs. 



43 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

the ship Argo, equipped by the merchants of Philadelphia, 
sailed on the perilous voyage of polar discovery.* 

With reference to our present and our future interests, 
the review of that portion of our annals to which your 
attention has been invited, is not without profitable instruc- 
tion. If there be any truth in experience, any moral in his- 
tory, any lesson inscribed on the tombs of empire, it is that 
virtue is the life of free institutions. Virtue was emphati- 
cally the glory of our fathers ; may it long continue to be 
that of their sons ! And as a means of preserving a heri- 
tage so inestimable, let us reverence the memory, and che- 
rish the principles, and emulate the actions of those wise 
and good men, who planted the tree that now covers us 
with its broad shade. To look back upon their institutions, 
to retrace with historic step the paths they trod, will not 
fail to animate, invigorate, and refresh. Thus, gentlemen, 
may your society fulfil a higher and a nobler purpose than 
the mere gratification of literary curiosity. It may fulfil an 
important duty to our common country. 

* A very interesting account of the attempts made in 1753 and 1754, by 
Captain Swaine, in the schooner Argo, to discover a north west passage, 
will be found in the American Quarterly Review, vol. 3. 



